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Bob Hope Classic Power Rankings

January 19, 2011   B.J. George   No comments

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Matt KucharThe PGA returns to the mainland and begins its West Coast Swing with the Bob Hope Classic. This tournament features a long list of celebrities playing alongside the professionals, and the setup reflects that. It’s no coincidence that the four courses used in this event ranked in the top-seven easiest in 2010.

Expect one of the lowest scoring weeks of the year as players take on La Quinta Country Club, SilverRock Resort, PGA West’s Nicklaus Course and PGA West’s Palmer Course over five rounds. Only the top 70 and ties will play in Sunday’s final round, which is the same round David Duval fired a 59 to win by a stroke in 1999.

Here’s who we see contending on Sunday:

1. Matt Kuchar — Last year’s money winner has found his place on Tour and seems extremely confident right now. Kuchar, pictured, is one of only two players to record a top-10 finish in each of the first two weeks. In the final round of the Sony Open, he looked as relaxed as anyone and likely would have caught Mark Wilson had he not averaged nearly two putts per GIR.

2. Bubba Watson — The long-hitting lefty didn’t break 70 in the first tournament of the year but still managed a top-25 finish. One of his four top-3 finishes a year ago came at this tournament. His second-round 62 was the lowest of week. With a win under his belt now, maybe he’ll be able to close out the tournament if he finds himself the fourth-round leader again this weekend.

3. Bill Haas — Last year’s winner shot only one round higher than a 66 en route to his first career victory. Haas began this season with a 8th place finish at the Tournament of Champions, where he carded two bogey-free rounds and tied for 7th in driving accuracy. The 28-year-old hasn’t finished outside of the top 30 since September.

4. Charley Hoffman — The 2007 Bob Hope winner welcomes a shootout. Seventh last year in birdie average, Hoffman carded nine over a span of 13 holes during his third round in the opener two weeks ago. He’s also a long hitter with a personality that seems to fit a celebrity event.

5. Brendon de Jonge — Now in his fourth full season on tour, de Jonge is a likely candidate to pick up his first win in 2011. He tied for 6th last year with seven top 10s, which included three top 3s. There’s no questioning his ability to score as he led the Tour in total birdies in 2010.

 

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Notebook: Welcome to the Big Leagues, Matt Kuchar

November 17, 2010   Mick Elliott   No comments

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Matt KucharIn a PGA Tour season full of surprises — Tiger went winless, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen and Martin Kaymer won majors, Phil Mickelson went vegetarian — the biggest may have been Matt Kuchar.

Thirteen years after winning the U.S. Amateur and being spotlighted as a future big deal, he finally may have arrived.

Until this year, Kuchar had only two career PGA Tour wins. Only twice in nine years had he finished better than 70th on the money list.

Now? Let’s just say it’s never a bad thing to end a season by accepting a couple of awards named after Harry Vardon and Arnold Palmer.

The Vardon Trophy, presented annually by the PGA of America, is given for the season’s lowest stroke average. Kuchar completed 97 rounds, posting a 69.61 adjusted scoring average, .05 lower than Steve Stricker (69.66). Paul Casey and Retief Goosen shared third at 69.72.

The Arnold Palmer Trophy, meanwhile, goes to the PGA Tour’s leading money winner, which Kuchar took with earnings of $4,910,477 — just over $100,000 better than runner-up and three-time winner Jim Furyk.

 

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Stewart Cink Dishes on PB&J Stall

November 10, 2010   Mick Elliott   No comments

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Stewart Cink, playing in this week’s Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Disney World — the former British Open champ’s first competitive appearance since last month’s Ryder Cup — wanted to set the record straight.

He is not nearly as crafty and everybody thinks.

“I have no tricks in my toolbox,” Cink said.

All the same, on the way to compiling a 1-0-3 record he provided one of the Ryder Cup’s most replayed moments that suggested otherwise.

It was Saturday’s second round of play at Celtic Manor. Cink and teammate Matt Kuchar were playing Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell.

The Europeans had just rallied from a two-hole deficit to tie the alternate-shot match going into the 17th hole. The gallery at Celtic Manor was crazed all week, but suddenly it sounded like a jumbo jet preparing for take off.

McDowell hit a tee shot that ended about five feet from the pin, setting McIlroy up for a very makeable birdie putt for the lead. Kuchar’s tee shot left Cink with a 25-footer.

 

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Hunter Mahan Unable to Seize His Ryder Cup Moment

October 04, 2010   Mick Elliott   No comments

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NEWPORT, Wales — Twenty-eight-year-old PGA Tour player Hunter Mahan won twice this season, bringing his career victory to three.

Nothing along the way, however, prepared him for Monday afternoon in the Ryder Cup.

When pairings for the tournament-ending 12 singles matches were announced, Mahan’s role as closer hardly seemed to be of major importance.

With Europe leading by three, conventional wisdom suggested the result would be long-ago settled before the day’s final match was even close to being complete.

That wasn’t the case. As things turned out, with the U.S. and Europe tied 13 ½-13 ½, Mahan and Europe’s Graeme McDowell were the only two golfers left on the course.

“Yeah, it could be a match nobody knows about or the biggest match of your life,” Mahan said. “I think about 10, we started to think that it would come down to us.”

 

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Despite Peanut Butter, US Finds Itself in Ryder Cup Jam

October 02, 2010   David Whitley   No comments

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Stewart CinkNEWPORT, Wales –Turn out the lavender lights, the party’s over.

The U.S. Ryder Cup team all but lost the Ryder Cup Saturday. Is it too easy to blame the lavender sweaters?

Probably, though it should be noted that the Ryder Cup has never been won by a team that wore lavender. The undressing was due to a variety of reasons, and I’m afraid what we see is not what we’re going to get.

What we see is the U.S. leading, 6-4. What we’re going to get is Colin Montgomerie spraying champagne over thousands of delirious countrymen.

As play ended, the Europeans had steamrolled ahead in all six matches. Play resumes at 7:45 a.m. local time Sunday, which is 2:45 a.m. on America’s East Coast.

Let me save you the trouble of staying up late, or waking up too early to tune in. Barring something sticky happening, Europe will have the U.S. finished off before breakfast.

I say sticky because the best U.S. moment of Saturday came from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The morning session had come down to the match between Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar against Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell.

The Europeans had rallied from a two-hole deficit to tie the alternate-shot match going into the 17th hole. The gallery has been crazed all week, but Celtic Manor sounded like one giant drunken pub as the Irish duo took the tee.

 

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US Holds Shaky, but Significant Ryder Cup Lead

October 02, 2010   Mick Elliott   No comments

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Matt Kuchar, Stewart Cink
NEWPORT, Wales — Advantage, United States.

As the rain-challenged Ryder Cup worked overtime Saturday in an effort to deliver a scheduled Sunday evening finish, the underdog American’s dumped some gloom of their own on the host Europeans.

With two of the now-scheduled four sessions finally complete, the United States holds a shaky but significant 6-4 lead.

It marks the first time the Americans have led on European soil after two sessions since 1985.

The Americans, however, are a long way from feeling good about their position at muddy, marsh-like Celtic Manor. In the third session that began late Saturday afternoon and will be completed Sunday before the start of grand-finale singles play, Europe leads in all six matches. None of the matches, however, have progressed beyond nine holes.

 

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As Rain Changes Schedule, Pavin Digs for New Strategy

October 01, 2010   Mick Elliott   No comments

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NEWPORT, Wales — Strategies changed Friday at the Ryder Cup after a seven-plus hour rain delay scrambled the three-day schedule, leaving the opening best-ball incomplete and pushing the afternoon alternate-shot format into Saturday. And beyond?

In an attempt to at least hope to crown a winner on Sunday, U.S. captain Corey Pavin and European boss Colin Montgomerie agreed to alter the playing schedule.

Instead of a total of five session played over three days, there will be four. But to retain the total of 28 available points, the two remaining two-man team matches remaining before the singles competition, will be enlarged from four groups to six.

The second session — Saturday morning — will consist of six foursome matches while the third session — Saturday afternoon — will consist of two foursome and four four-ball matches.

The 12 singles matches will still take place as originally planned Sunday afternoon — weather permitting.

The result is that every member of each 12-man team will see duty, forcing captains to depend on performances from four players in each group that he would have sat out.


The alternate shot format is considered the most difficult for many players to play.

 

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Corey Pavin’s Ryder Cup Pairings Open for Second-Guessing

September 30, 2010   Mick Elliott   No comments

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Corey Pavin at Ryder Cup Opening Ceremonies

NEWPORT, Wales — Five Ryder Cup rookies help make up the United States squad that begins play Friday against Europe when the 38th renewal of the biannual competition begins at Celtic Manor.

In a bold move, American captain Corey Pavin is playing four of the first-time members in the morning’s open session of four-ball play — two paired together in the fourth and final match of the best-ball competition. Bubba Watson and Jeff Overton will go against the Euro glamour-name pairing of Luke Donald and Padraig Harrington to close the morning session.

It’s a decision that opens Pavin to a wave of second guessing.

Every captain speaks of a desire to grab control of the momentum early, so the American captain anchoring the opening session with a pair of rookies in front of a pro-European crowd attracted immediate debate.


That’s especially the case considering that Jim Furyk, a seven-time Ryder Cup performer coming off a big win Sunday in the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup, was left on the sidelines.

“Well, he said he was tired,” Pavin joked of Furyk. “He was counting the money and he’s been very tired.”

As for the Watson-Overton pairing, Pavin said he has a good feeling.

 

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Pavin’s Ryder Cup Picks Hard to Dispute

September 07, 2010   Mick Elliott   No comments

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Ryder Cup Captain Corey PavinU.S. Ryder Cup team captain Corey Pavin (pictured) on Tuesday explained the logic behind his four wild-card picks with disarming simplicity.

“What was important to me is who I thought could play well in that environment over in Wales on European soil,” Pavin said. “I wanted to find guys that round off the team and make it a team of 12, not 12 individuals that are great players. I wanted 12 players that made up a great team.”

While Pavin will have to wait until the matches against Europe are played in South Wales on Oct. 1-3 to find out if he succeeded, at least, on paper, the captain’s four picks appear difficult to question.

Pavin had just given the roll call, announcing (in order) Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson, Tiger Woods and Rickie Fowler as hand-picked additions to a squad of eight points-system qualifiers.

“The important thing was to match up these four with the eight that are already on the team,” said Pavin.


Interestingly, Pavin made his announcement in New York City at a press conference hosted by the New York Stock Exchange, where speculation and risk are all in another day’s work.

Pavin’s investment capital comes in the form of his eight automatic points-system qualifiers: Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Dustin Johnson, Jeff Overton and Matt Kuchar. But from that group, only Mickelson (seven), Mahan (one), Furyk (six) and Stricker (one) have past Ryder Cup experience.

 

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Tiger Woods Among Corey Pavin’s Ryder Cup Captain’s Choices

September 07, 2010   Will Brinson   No comments

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Tiger Woods was named by Corey Pavin as one of the four “captain’s choices” for the 2010 Ryder Cup on Tuesday morning.

Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Rickie Fowler (the first rookie to ever make the Ryder Cup team) joined Woods as well, and all four men seemed particularly excited about the opportunity.

“It’s really exciting for me, obviously, to be included on the team,” Cink said. “I think this makes my third time getting picked (as a captain’s choice) which is getting close to a record. Which means I must not be that good at qualifying.”

Woods, however, hasn’t exactly had that trouble — he’s typically the first guy locked into the Ryder Cup, but obviously this season was different. Pavin refused, however, to acknowledge that he’d been thinking about Tiger’s inability to qualify on his own.

“Well, what I was trying to do was not form any opinions until almost this weekend,” Pavin said. “I didn’t want to overburden myself so I just waited and waited and waited. Tiger’s one of 12 guys on the team, and everyone’s as important as the other.”

 

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